RWBY Play-by-Play 3: Black and Yellow Trailers

Welcome

The spoiler thread was unused last time, but I think I’m going to keep adding it. I get a feeling it’ll come in handy in the future.

It has been brought to my attention that these trailers are mostly there to showcase Monty’s work, and he was more or less the sole animator working on these. The low budget and Monty’s very specialized expertise is what leads to the strangeness of incredibly fluid action and incredibly bad everything else (walking talking, that sort of thing). I will keep this in mind as the series progresses. As I told one commenter, the action is cool and all, but a show lives and dies on it’s narrative. I have been assured multiple times that things get better. I hope so.

I took a lashing for ignoring the music in the trailers. Apparently music is a big big part of this series and I wasn’t aware of that. I had sort of tuned it out. I will endeavor to keep the music in mind.

Black Trailer

Editor’s note: Something went a little sideways with the youtube rip. The screenshots might be a little crummy in this section.

This one also starts with a quote

Hopes, burdens, and liberation. Liberation is a hell of a loaded word, and we know that White Fang is a terrorist organization… I don’t know if there’s a connection there, but that’s something to keep in mind.

Ohhh, pretty.

Very pretty

So I assume this is the subject of our trailer. Long black hair, black stockings/leggings/whatever. Black trailer. The last girl was called White Snow, so is this one gonna be Black Blackerman. Coal Schwarzschild?

Kitty ears!

We know furries are a thing in this universe, she must be one of them. Given the furry revolt we know about and the furry terrorist organisation and the quote about liberation, there are a lot of hints and clue falling into place here. Coal Schwarzschild here is an evil furry terrorist. That’ll be interesting to see.

Blake! Hah, close enough. Her name is literally the old english word for black.

So here’s the question right? Do these people pick their own name when they decide what their favorite color is? Or do the parents name them normally and now she’s doomed to wear black for the rest of her life? What happens to a rebellious child who you’ve named Maud Mauve but she wants to run around in yellow sundresses?

Face shot

The most striking thing is her eyes. The shape and color of them. That is a really striking shade of amber. Jut that little bit of purple makeup at the edges, too. Gorgeous.

Also, that’s a bow. Not cat ears. Man, if jumping to conclusions were an olympic sport, I’d be a gold medalist. Not a furry then. Just a girl who likes to wear a bow. The poor quality rip tricked me.

It works for her. It’s cute.

“Okay…”

Is it just me, or does she seem uncertain about something?

Freeking sonic the hedgehog over here.

He’s on screen for like one frame. I like his design though. The face mask is a little weird, which means I can’t tell his eye color. I love that coat and slacks. Very cool suit. I wish I could get more detail on the design on the back of his jacket. I’m gonna guess that’s a katana at his side.

Man, he is who every 13 year old weeaboo wants to be. Except her can actually pull it off. Very cool.

And here’s our girl.

That’s either a ribbon behind her, or some sort of anime motion line. Is everyone in this show super freeking fast?

Found the bird someone told me to look out for

Dunno what it means, but I found it.

Ruby has an Uncle ~~C~~Qrow… And that bird is black…. And someone did say the bird is important…

Onward!

Nothing to analyse here. This is just dope.

Although, that does actually appear to be a ribbon. Wouldn’t that get caught on everything and pull it off her head?

Here we get a close up on ‘Pimp Daddy Weeb’

Even the mask as a cool design on it. Why doesn’t ~~Coal Schwarzschild~~ Blake get a cool mask?

Is that a shotgun shell extractor of his sword? Does he have a gunblade? COOL!!

Red shirt under black jacket, yummy yummy. Man, I love this design. Please be a main character so I can love you. I bet your soul is so gentle and delicate….

Got my wish

That is a fucking awesome design on PDW’s coat. It’s a rose of all things. Rose on the jacket, Ruby Rose, is there some connection there?

Her father maybe?

I would guess that this is Uncle Qrow, given the black and red and awesome but he’s not using a scythe so it can’t be him.

Please be a main character.

Yup, that’s a katana

More cool designs.

Scary Robots

Isn’t it usually the bad guys who have the scary robots? So that makes Blake and PDW the good guys right? Right?

Please be right.

Squaring off for a fight!

This is gonna be goooood. Ms Schwarzschild and PDW are gonna wreck house.

Is he staring into my soul?

I can’t tell.

Red katana. Because of course it is.

Still, he fired it from the scabbard. That was cool. Now he’s gonna grab and cut this robot to ribbons.

He even puts it away after he finishes the job.

That’s awesome. Wasn’t that an old samurai thing?

Man, that’s hot.

PDW blocks bullets.

Wait wait wait… There’s a sword in the scabbard. That’s also a sword. And the sword is also a gun

What? I just…what?!

Doesn’t a sharpened scabbard defeat the purpose?

“Let’s do this.”

As much as I love his design, and I do, oh baby do I ever, his voice acting is godawful. Why must you ruin this for me, poor production values? I was having so much fun.

He sounds like a bad actor pretending to be a good actor who’s pretending to be hard core and angsty but he’s actually just drunk and phoning it in.

Who would do that? Who would pretend to be a drunk actor?

Now I’m not so sure I want him to be a main character if that means I have to listen to him talk.

Maybe that’s too mean, but seriously. Bad voice. I had kinda been ignoring it up till now, but this is just too much.

Is that…a snowfalke?

It’s hard to tell, but it looks kind of like the symbol on Wiess’ dress. If it is, I have no idea what to do with this information.

It’s definately the snowflake

Now that gun that is also a sword that goes in a scabbard that is also a sword now was a ribbon on it.

And she throws it at people.

I can’t.

That booty, though.

And she uses the recoil of the gun to add impact to her strikes

We’ve seen that before. It’s a neato trick.

What is even happening here…

That is a really cool fight. Not really a lot to screencap, but just a really cool fight.

“Perfect”

No. It’s not. It’s far from perfect.

But we do learn here that this was some sort of raid on a train to steal something from people who have scary robots. Neato.

And whatever it is, it’s perfect.

“Move up to the next carrrrrr” Please. Make it stop.

More snowflakes.

I’m starting to think that snowflake symbol is extremely important. A main character wears it. She uses it to cast spells, and there’s a train full of snowflakes.

Blake continues to be pretty.

Also, turns out it’s not a raid on a train to take something. They’re going to blow it up.

Or maybe it’s both.

“What about the crew?”

What crew? I havn’t seen any crew. Maybe they’re hiding.

Also her voice actress is okay. She sounds fine and natural, but she also sounds like she’s pushing for emotion, instead of just being naturally emotive.

Better than the other guy, though.

“What about them?” Uuughghghgh

Oh, so his soul isn’t that gentle after all. Is he a bad guy? That’s unfortunate.

Daddy’s home!

Adam. PDW’s name is Adam.

Punt. lol.

Pucker Factor: 8.2

Kamehameha!

Ow.

Ow again.

Oh, is he absorbing it? Is that his superpower? Cool!

Nice. I love this shot.

Ow.

God damn, he is so cool

HNNNNNG

It’s so pretty, I can’t stop taking screenshots!

More snowflakes.

“Goodbye”

And it wraps up with a really pretty shot.

Why did she leave, I wonder? Her and Adam seemed like a good fighting pair. Maybe the whole crew situation was some sort of last straw? Maybe it’ll come up later in the show proper.

Yellow Trailer

This one also opens with a quote

But it’s kinda gibberish. Pretty people are symmetrical? Duh! Except for Weiss, who’s scar totally works for her. Weird.

I can tell from the boobs that this is Summer

And she has a color-coordinated motorcycle. Hot.

Heh, goggles

Bird!

I love everything about this. Everything.

Such a gorgeously minimal shot.

This girl has the sashay down pat.

Damn, she is gorgeous

Hey, it’s that guy! Roman Torchwick, according to my notes.

And who’s the red and white arm candy?

You can just see one of the suited dudes at the bar.

So..what is happening here?

Roman just walks away, and the other dude is not happy about…something…

I have no idea what to do with this information.

There’s some connections here, obviously. Roman is connected to this guy. They’re both connected to the goons, and it’s all connected to this nightclub. I just don’t see the connections yet.

Here we get a good look at the arm candy

The one on the left looks like she’s in a wedding dress, which is weird. They’re both putting off some serious loli vibes. Which is, ya know, ick.

Moving on.

Strawberry Sunrise. No ice With a little umbrella. Yup, bimbo.

Good voice actress, though. Between Ruby’s nasal older woman and Adam’s…whatever…it’s good to hear some talent.

Also, does strawberry sunrise strike anyone? Isn’t her sister red, and she’s yellow. Strawberry sunrise. I don’t know if it means anything but it’s a hell of a coincidence otherwise.

Also Weiss is connected to ice so… Maybe?

I dunno who this guy is, and this is the best shot we got so far, so that’s go to work!

I like his outfit. Not as cool as Adam, but definitely more suave and normal. Also, he’s kinda tall, no? His outfit also reminds me of this guy

Remember that guy?

Fuck that guy.

I don’t know if it’s actually a connection, but it seems strong. Maybe they’re his goons and Roman was hiring them for the hit?

Isn’t hiring goons expensive? And he didn’t want the money? All he wanted was the dust? That robbery seems dumber and dumber every time.

Or maybe they aren’t his goons and I’m way off. No way of knowing.

“Arn’t you a little old to have a name like Junior?”

She even sounds like a bimbo.

But here’s something interesting, right? She knew his name!. And I didn’t catch it right away, but “Junior” responded to the drink order. Junior, however, doesn’t know her name which is really weird.

Or maybe Blonde and Junior are code names? But I’m getting ahead of myself,.

Anyway, so the name thing means Summer set this up and the drink order was a signal. A signal she connected to her sister. Something unusual but sentimental. Very cool.

But here’s the kicker, right, if that’s her name on the gravestone, but she’s standing right here then…does that mean she faked her death?

Glossing over why she might do that, it makes sense then that she would use that drink as her signal, a little something to pay homage to her sister she left behind, and start using Blonde as a codename. Something recognisable yet not a give away.

The name makes sense because of the chromatic connection. But there’s a problem, Ruby visited Summer’s grave all sad and respectful, as is befitting someone actually dead. Which would imply that That Ruby thinks she’s dead, fair enough.

Except in episode one she wasn’t surprised at all to see Summer on the airship. Which means Ruby doesn’t think Summer is dead.

And Summer isn’t really hiding if she’s going to Huntress College.

Discrepency Detected

So what’s the resolution? The easiest solution is that my initial assumption was wrong, and Blonde isn’t Summer. Despite them being sisters. Despite the name connection. The facts just don’t line up.

Which means she didn’t fake her death. Which means she didn’t leave Ruby behind. Which means the drink order is just a signal then. It could still be a homage to her sister, but not one of sadness, just one of love. Blonde could still be a code name.

But a code name for what? Hard to tell. Maybe she moonlights as some sort of secret operative between classes? Weird career choice for a bimbo. Unless the bimbo thing is an act.

Maybe the bimbo thing is an act.

Aaarg, this is all too much, and it’s just a house of cards anyway. Let’s just move on and get more information.

Damn, Summer/Blonde/whatever-your-name-is, you have my attention.

“So you know who I am, you got a name, sweetheart?”

“Yes, Junior, I’ve got several.”

Called it. Codename. Alias. Drink signal. Hanging out at a bar.

Possibly faked death.

If this was a different franchise I’d think she was a shadowrunner.

“Call me sir!”

Okay, first off, ow?

Secondly, why? He was co-operating? Why the nutshot?

Tell me where I can find her

She’s a bounty hunter?

Well, if this target is being protected by Junior, the nut shot makes a little more sense.

Never seen her before, eh? I believe him. So ~~Blonde~~Sir was wrong. He’s not protecting her target. This is gonna end in violence, I can smell it.

She is really laying on the bimbo act, but damn she is violent

She’s gonna hit him

She hit him

C’mon Junior, oldest trick in the book! Flash your boobs at a guy to get his guard down, then hit him. Obviously.

Still though, I don’t understand why. She came in, crushed his balls, yelled at him about something he has no idea about, then suckerpunched him.

She is a terrible bounty hunter. And, I gotta say, I think she’s the bad guy in all of that.

Ow.

Ow again.

I’m sorry, did her bracelets unfold into…something?

I’m all about cool weapons, but that’s just a little bit too much unfolding to be believable. Like, way too much unfolding.

Pretty face, though.

That sounded like a shotgun

Are those shotgauntlets? Nice!

No, guys, come on! This can only end badly for you!

That looks familiar. Again.

This is not the smile of a sane person

MMmmm. Beautiful.

Ow. Again.

Yup. That’s a shot-gauntlet

Also, is that or is that not the sound from Halo?

She is a kickboxer. Words can not describe how hot that is.

D34db34r?

(I really hope that’s not his name. This feels like one of those details that’s gonna piss people off again.)

Wait, the music was diegetic again?! She hit the console with his face and it went all wonky, lol.

Melanie and Miltia. The loli twins.

Still. Ick.

I hope Blonde ruins their faces.

Miltia has claws. Weird.

Rockets

That’s useful.

Yet another cool fight. I love it.

Ow. Again. Right in the face

The face again!

I’m getting my wish! She’s ruining faces!

Red got wrecked, hah.

Thank god the lolis have petticoats, too. That would have just been too far.

Damn that footwork.

I love this shot. The look on White’s face is just too precious.

“Nooooo!” lol

LOL

Oh hey, it’s Weiss’ singing! Nice.

Oh my, this looks bad.

Is that a rocket launcher?

MIRVs. Cool.

This was just cool. Watching her shoot the rockets out of the air.

Ow. Again.

Oh, is this the part of the fight where she starts to lose a little bit to show that it’s serious business before she uses her superpower and wrecks house?

Trope alert. Sad when it’s this obvious.

Her hair’s on fire. I bet that means superpower.

Yup.

SSJ Blonde

Wham, wham, wham, wham. This looks so brutal. And painful.

Whoa, red eyes. Cool.

Hah, she broke his toy.

And is that some hair in his hand?

She is not happy about that. Take note: she loves her hair. Do not touch.

That’s a cool effect.

Drained all the color, except for her red eyes. Marvelous.

BAHAHAHAH

Was that the baseball bat sound from Super Smash Brothers?

…Ruby?

Ruby!

Yang. Her name is Yang.

Fuck me.

So okay, no faked death, that’s not her grave, she’s not hiding from her sister.

So who’s Summer then? Interesting.

Wrap up and Review

I am WAY over character count. The Black trailer alone wasn’t enough, but the Yellow trailer was surprisingly dense with information if you looked closely.

Sorry for not doing into much detail on the music again. I was over count as it was and the music was so awesome that it practically deserves it’s own post. Maybe. Sometime in the future.

That Summer thing had me going for a while. It’ll be interesting to see who Summer is, and how Yang is gonna handle the bounty hunter thing while also going to Huntress College.

The trailers were pretty cool, and set up some interesting questions. The action was top, even if the other production values just are not up to par. Still though, it’s good to get them out of the way and get back to the show proper. I have even more questions there.

They were effective trailers, to be sure, highlighting both the show’s strengths and it’s weaknesses. I think I have a better idea of what to expect.

Also, I’ll be able to talk about the characters without being convinced that Ruby is a fire mage. I tried to do less power-predicting here because the trailers were built to show it off, so there wasn’t much point.

Actually, now that I think of it, I never did figure out what Blake’s power is. Huh.